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Agro-ecology and Economics

Crops are crucial, but so are the agricultural and economic systems of which they are a part. Here you’ll find out more about our work to link farmers to markets, improve soils and natural resource management, develop ecosystem services, and a lot more.

It’s October in Cyuve district, one of Rwanda’s most productive agricultural regions. Looking across the valley to the hills in the far distance, just one crop dominates. Climbing beans. The beans are not yet waist high. Instead, it is the many thousands of uniform two metre wooden stakes reaching into the sky that cover the entire landscape. You’d beRead More …

Whether you like it frothy, skinny, straight or short, coffee lovers around the world face a wake-up call as the perfect storm brews for their favourite drink. For the first time, researchers have mapped suitability for Arabica coffee – the most popular, high-quality gourmet variety with a 70 percent global market share – to see how it will cope inRead More …

In agricultural research, time-frames are long and funding often short, so getting the priorities right is crucial. Scientific organizations must be doubly sure they’re focused on tomorrow’s challenges and not yesterday’s, if they expect to remain relevant and effective. This is the spirit in which CIAT’s Decision and Policy Analysis (DAPA) Research Area has prepared a new policy brief examiningRead More …

On 16 October, which coincidentally was World Food Day, Julius Byamukama, product manager of a food-processing company in Uganda’s southwestern Kabale District, travelled to the nation’s capital, Kampala, to put the finishing touches on an application for government certification of a new line of tasty and nutritious products. Once granted, this will open the door to national markets, greatlyRead More …

Earlier this year, CIAT published a study in PNAS, which addresses the increasing homogeneity of global food supplies and the implications for food security. It revealed that diets worldwide have become more similar by an average of 36% in the last 50 years. According to the study, global food systems rely increasingly on just a few crops – inRead More …

I personally like dark chocolate, with 70% cocoa or more. But if my chocolate can also be climate friendly, even better. This is where the shade percentage matters. Let’s take a look at cocoa production then. Brazil was once among the world’s main cocoa producers, but yield levels have declined in the 1990s due to a combination of agronomicRead More …